A life-long passion fully awakened about 15 years ago when Dick Winters learned there was a growing cycling community in Charlotte, N.C. Dick got involved in just about anything that promoted bicycling, especially on Charlotte’s streets. He started volunteering with Trips for Kids Charlotte, a local non-profit that engages with kids from underserved neighborhoods through bicycling, and Dick is actively involved with them to this day. He is also active with City and County advisory groups that support building a greenway network and making bicycling more accessible and safer throughout the city. Dick decided to leave a three-and-a-half-decade career to join a public health initiative to get fellow citizens walking and bicycling more as an antidote to the rising obesity rates.
Dick, along with two fellow cyclists, started a free, open-to-the-public learn to ride event teaching kids the balance bike approach to riding on two wheels. That expanded to include people of all ages! Dick has been providing bicycles and training to elementary PE teachers so they could create classes to teach their students how to ride bikes safely. A chance connection in 2018 between Mecklenburg County Public Health and Strider Education Foundation made it possible to start to equip elementary schools with the tools and resources needed to teach all kindergarten students the life skill of riding a bicycle. With over 200 elementary schools in the Charlotte region, Dick considers his retirement to be well mapped out! Being an All Kids Bike National Ambassador makes this chapter of his life even more fun!
